What have I been doing in the last week?  What have I been reading?  Not classics.  I started, finished and forgot Chuck Palahniuk’s new book the day I rented it from my library.  I went out for drinks with some girls I hadn’t seen in months.  I read a book called “Pride & Prescience”, a Jane Austen meta-fiction mystery starring Elizabeth Darcy – palatable, but also forgettable.  I bought a mandoline to slice vegetables so thin you can see through them.  I read Kazu Kibuishi’s “Amulet: the Stonekeeper” (a comic book), which is awesome.  I went for a walk or two in the finally-nice weather.  I finished “A Short History of Anxiety”.

So, now I’m reading the Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.  It’s not technically a classic.  But, on publication, it did earn the author a fatwa from the Ayatollah Khomeini, who called for his murder by any faithful Muslim with the means and opportunity.  So I don’t care if it’s a classic or not. Also, it’s really interesting and mysterious so far.

Since this is supposed to be a project in which I am reading works I want to emulate in my own writing, I am tweaking this project a little.  I’m not going to be as concerned with a book’s status as I am with its value.  My goal is to avoid complete boredom: 50 *intriguing* works of fiction in 50 (ish) weeks.  No chick lit, no action-movie plot lines, no predictable mysteries, and most of all, no more classics selected mostly for how quickly I can read them.  I’ll still try to give preference to classics, but if I scour the shelves and can’t find something that I want to read, I’ll pick something quality but not necessarily classic.  Deal?